History of The Libertarian Party (United States) - Clark, Crane, Koch, and Paul

Clark, Crane, Koch, and Paul

In the 1980 presidential contest, the Libertarian Party gained ballot access in all 50 States, Washington, D.C., and Guam, the first time a third party accomplished this since the Socialist Party in 1916 (when there were only 48 States and the District of Columbia did not get to vote for president). The ticket of Ed Clark and David H. Koch spent several million dollars on this political campaign and earned more than one percent of the popular vote with almost one million votes, the most successful Libertarian presidential campaign to date.

On December 29, 1981, the first widely reported successful election in the continental United States of a Libertarian Party candidate in a partisan race occurred as Richard P. Siano, a Boeing 707 pilot for Trans World Airlines, running against both a Republican and a Democrat, was elected to the office of Kingwood Township Committeeman in western Hunterdon County, New Jersey. His election resulted from the special election held on December 29, 1981 to break a tie vote in the general election between him and the Democratic candidate. He received 63% of the votes cast in the special election. He served a three-year term of office. Another Libertarian had, in 1977, been elected to a city council position in New Jersey.

In 1983 (the LP at the time held is nominating convention the year before the election, due to the stringent requirements many States set for allowing an alternative party on their ballots), the party was divided by internal disputes; former party leaders Ed Crane and David H. Koch left, taking a number of their supporters with them. In 1984, the party's presidential nominee, David Bergland, gained access to the ballot in 36 states and earned one-quarter of one percent of the popular vote. In 1987, Doug Anderson became the first Libertarian elected to office in a major city, elected to the Denver Election Commission (later, in 2005, Anderson was elected to the Lakewood, Colorado city council).

In 1988, former Republican Congressman Ron Paul won the Libertarian nomination for president and was on the ballot in 46 states. Paul later successfully ran for United States House of Representatives from Texas, once again as a Republican, an office in which he still serves. He ran in the Republican primaries in 2008 and currently is sponsoring HR 1207 in the House of Representatives, a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. His running-mate was Andre Marrou, a former member of the Alaska legislature; the ticket was thus one of the few "third-party" tickets in American history to have former office-holders in both slots.